World in Conflict Hands-on

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For all you do, this nuke's for you.

By Dan Adams

We've had the chance to play World in Conflict's multiplayer in the past. It's cool like a cucumber. Well, assuming the cucumber hasn't been in a microwave or regular oven or sitting out in the sun or lit on fire. Because then the cucumber wouldn't be cool at all. It would be hot. And in that case, World in Conflict would be hot like a cucumber. It's cool and hot all at the same time. Enough of that, let's blow crap up!

This year is a sweet ass year for real-time strategy fans. We've already seen Supreme Commander and Command & Conquer 3 hit the shelves. Later in the year we'll see the next Company of Heroes, Universe at War, Empire Earth III, Sins of a Solar Empire, Theatre of War, and expansions for Sword of the Stars, Medieval II, and Warhammer: Mark of Chaos undoubtedly along with more that we haven't heard of. With such a strong line-up, it's interesting to see that each of these games actually has something pretty unique going for it. I suppose that's why it's no surprise that the gameplay in World in Conflict is heading in its own unique direction.

Taking a turn towards an alternate history where the Soviet Union never collapsed and actually invaded US soil, the battles in this pre-alpha test rage across small towns and farmland in the Midwest. One of the maps at least is familiar as we've seen it before with plenty of hills and a town split by a bridge set in the center and surrounded by hills and river country. The other is a more open map split in half by a bridge crossing a river. The bridges and crossing locations become focal points of heated conflict and battles begin their ebb and flow.

Those of you that have been following the game probably already know why, but I like to hear myself talk (or see myself write in this case) so I'll explain again. World in Conflict introduces the idea of "classes" to RTS gaming. In a typical multiplayer game, combatants will have to take on a specific role guiding troops of armor, infantry, aircraft, or support. You'll have to select one of the specialties which will open up a selection of units available for use in each of those categories. Points to spend on these units accumulate automatically at different rates depending on the number of units you already have in the field. So if you've gotten all of your troops killed, you'll gain points back faster to get back in the fight whereas those who already have several units out won't be able to get help as quickly (or at all if they've got the maximum number). Squads of units are typically pretty small (around 4-8 units), but the battlefield never feels empty when there are 16 players moving around the same number of units. The pace is fast and chaotic.

Successful teams will need to make sure that they keep a combination of different unit types together on the field. This promotes some serious team play and coordination to deal with different situations. In a way, it works much like games in the FPS genre such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, the Battlefield series, or Team Fortress where teams want and need their members to take on various roles to be successful.

What this type of gameplay creates is a very fast action tactical experience with a lot of pretty explosions and chaos. We've been playing a closed "friends and family" type of Alpha test for nearly the entire day and we can't get enough. In fact, it's now 5:30 and I'm supposed to have this story published by 6:00 but I've only now managed to tear myself away.

Each of the specialties is a necessary piece of the strategic puzzle. When everyone actually plays in concert it's a thing of beauty. Since many of the players we've seen, including ourselves, are pretty new to the experience, gameplay hasn't become completely organized yet. Even so, you'll see the players online picking up the slack in any specialty that doesn't have enough representation. Helicopter air units zip around the battlefield and can cover a lot of ground quickly. But the support anti-air units are deadly as hell. Meanwhile anti-air and artillery (the best artillery can fire more than halfway across each map have to worry about armor and infantry). The medium anti-air can protect itself by switching its guns to ground attack, but the heavy anti-air are vulnerable to pretty much anything. Infantry, meanwhile can hide themselves in wooded areas and the ant-tank variety can really do some damage. Almost all the units have different special abilities like the medium helicopter's Sidwinder anti-air missile or the heavy helicopter's Hellfire anti-armor missile. It's a balancing act for individual players and teams to manage while having to worry about the various capture points around the map.